One complaint associated with a water closet that is common with both men and women concerns the toilet bowl cover. After using the water closet, many people, especially men, often forget to place the toilet bowl cover in the bowl covering position. Leaving the bowl uncovered presents problems which are both aesthetic and sanitary, and can even present a danger if small pets or children can be in the vicinity of the open toilet bowl.
Therefore, the art has included devices which are intended to ensure that the bowl cover is closed when the water closet is not in use. These devices range from simple cover latches which hold the cover in an upright orientation, to foot-operated pedals which lift the cover when the pedal is depressed.
While somewhat effective, the devices known prior to the device of the present invention suffer from several disadvantages. One disadvantage is the possibility that the cover may be accidentally dropped from the upright orientation. This is especially a problem with the detent devices, but also occurs in many of the other known devices. Dropping the cover may damage either the cover or the bowl.
Another disadvantage is the requirement for positive action by a user. The latching devices require a user to hook an element to the cover, then to unhook such cover, the foot pedals require the user to depress a foot pedal, and so forth. Such action may be bothersome to some users or even onerous to some users, who will simply omit such step and leave the cover open.
Therefore, there is a need for an assembly which will automatically lower a toilet bowl cover in a controlled manner from an upright bowl-uncovering orientation to a bowl-covering position without requiring any positive action from the water closet user which is additional to the actions commonly associated with use of a water closet.